All posts by Bill-Di Pinbert

Sauvelade to Navarrenx; It’s a bird, it’s a pain …

2018 Camino de France

Today was 7 miles, bringing our total to 446 miles, overall. We’re getting there!

Last night was spent at Gite Nadette, a comfortable accommodation, a bit off the beaten tracks. The pluses are:

  • A nice meal and a bed.
  • A terrific view!
  • A very nice pool.
  • A caring hostess. 

The challenges are:

  • A bit off the beaten path (about 1.25 miles).
  • Some peculiarities, which when understood, simply become an enjoyable part of the experience!

All in all, we had a great meal, a great sleep and a great time!

We’re continue to close in on the Pyrenees, visible above the morning fog at Gite Nadette.

As we walked along, we could see that the rolling hills and farmlands are starting to give way to foothills and forest. 

We are now in Navarrenx, a completely fortified village dating back to Roman times.

A bird, a pain, no it’s Super- Diane!

It seems that “Pinson” is the French name for a type of bird, similar to a Finch.

We’ve been told this by several French persons, but this time they showed us the info.

Pain: Diane’s shins continue the slow but definite trend towards improvement. This is a very good thing. We both wish the healing would go faster, but hey, at least she is able to continue walking. That is s big blessing!

Tomorrow is our third and last day off. Life is good! We’re have about 45 miles left to go to get to St. Jean,  in three walking days,  so a day off is a good thing.

Bill and Diane

Our Third Rest Day; Animals and Out-Takes

2018 Camino de France

Today was 0 miles hiked. Our total remains 446 miles, overall.

Today’s rest day is in Navarrenx, considered one of the most beautiful villages in France.

Okay, you’ve heard that before. Actually, we’ve traveled through about seven “most beautiful villages in France” on this trip.  The term is an official designation given to about 150 villages throughout France. These villages introduce themselves with signs like this one, from Montreal de Gers.

So, we’ve seen about 5% of them. Not bad …

Speaking of signs, here’s an always helpful public service announcement from your feet that we saw coming out of Arzacq.

(Hint: it’s about angry feet!)

And the animals, here’s a friend Diane made in the village of Eauze.

There has been an abundance of the cute varieties of animals. 

And we’ll close this out- takes review with a credit to Diane’s fighting spirit. Here’s a photo from Moissaic:

Maintenant, on va profiter de notre repos!

A demain!

Navarrenx to Aroue: We’re in the Basque Country

2018 Camino de France

Now for the count and the amount:  Today was 12 miles, bringing our total to 458 miles overall. We crossed two more rivers, the Oloron and the Saison. Most noteworthy is the the Saison river is the former border for the Basque country … though many of the current Basque residents would object to the use of “former”.

After two nights in Navarrenx, we were rested and ready to get back on the road. It seems the town was ready to see us out and even sent a balloon to keep an eye on us to insure we were actually leaving! 

The walk today was as easy as a 12 mile walk could be, with cooler temperatures, forest covering, and a thoroughly level surface most of the way. Importantly, Diane’s shin was quiet (pretty much) the whole way! Praise God!

As we closed in on our stop for the night, we were greeted by the horse equivalent of Munchkins!

Okay, so they’re ponies, but they do remind me of Munchkins …

Two more days of walking before St. Jean. The excitement is growing!

Aroue to Ostobat; Mountains, Options and Grandchildren

2018 Camino de France

Today was 15 miles, bringing our total to 473 miles, overall. Tomorrow we will have about 13 miles to complete the formal part of this journey.

We can almost touch the Pyrenees now.Our next stop, St. Jean Pied de Port means: St. Jean at the Foot of the Pass. We are close!

Today was 15 miles, but could have been longer had we not chosen a “bypass option”. These are noted in many of the guidebooks but really require a “buyer beware” sticker. They are not well marked, and will require a good deal of sleuthing to figure them out. Today, we took the detour down on the map below, after 13 (really, 11.3 plus 1.8) kilometers. 

Done correctly, it saves about 3 km of hiking and an additional serious climb. We had trouble finding the start of the detour, so I defaulted to Google maps, which only had a cursory knowledge (no cell signal to fill in the blanks).

Net, we did a bit of wandering but within 20 minutes we were confident that we were on the right path. The challenge was that another couple chose to follow us … but backed out after 15 minutes or so (they went back to the starting point).  Bill tried to track them down to assure them that the short cut was indeed working, but no luck.  It’s an important reminder that ultimately you are responsible for your own walk.

On the way, we encountered these ducks who seemed to be very frightened of Diane. Perhaps it had to do with Diane’s recent dining habits (can you say; magret, confit and pate?

Grandchildren are amazing! We have been blessed with 6 and were expecting the 7th in mid-October (we’d be home then). In typical youth style,  Natalie Wishart surprised us by arriving yesterday! We are so happy for her parents, Stephanie and Eric, and only wish we could have been there for that moment.

We did share the news with the 20 French men and women staying at the hostel we were at. They were properly happy for Natalie!

Regards,

Ostabat to St Jean Pied de Port; Nous Sommes Arrivé

2018 Camino de France

13 miles today, bringing our total for the walk from Le Puy to St Jean Pied de Port to 486 miles. That is the formal end of our journey.

Okay, as explained, we are now in the Basque country. The Basque country, which spans both France and Spain, consider themselves semiautonomous; Basques first, then French or Spanish.

Last night’s gite (hostel) was run by a Basque couple who cooked us a Basque meal, told us Basque history, and sang several Basque songs. Here is a short piece of one of the songs (not really a worthy representation of the great singing)

The evening ended with a phenomenal moonrise, which was nearly full. 

Alas, the last day of hiking together had to come, so we hit the road. 

Diane led the way, pointing out the directions in both French and Basque languages. 

And in too short a time, we arrived in St Jean, where we started our first Camino four years ago. 

We will save our observations and thoughts for the next few days. For now, we will simply enjoy the moment.

St. Jean, Roncesvalles, Pamplona; It’s Not Our Camino

2018 Camino de France

So, here are the numbers: 486 miles walked, or 12.5 miles/ day of hikng. 48,400′ of climbing, or an average of 1,240′ of elevation gain/ day of hiking.

By prior standards, this was an “easier” Camino. On the Del Norte, we averaged 15.5 miles. For our first Camino,  the Camino Frances, we averaged 14.7 miles.

As anyone who’s ever done this knows, the is no such thing as an “average” day or  “easier” walk.  Each walk, each day has it’s own uniqueness and challenges. Just simply enjoy the beauty and ‘suck it up’ when it gets tough. When it is all done, you will be so thankful you chose to do the walk and to stick with it when it got tough.

For us, the toughest part has been the last few days. We have chosen to recover, first in Roncesvalles (the first stop for Pilgrims on the Camino Frances), then in Pamplona (the third stop for Camino Frances Pilgrims). It is by far the toughest thing for us to watch these adventurers going out to play … and us sitting on the sidelines. We ache to be out walking!

We saw this familiar sign in Roncesvalles and just knew we could do that! Hey, we did it in 2014. Not this year, though.

But this is recovery time, so we need to relax and ‘be tourists’. Blah! So, we make such poor tourists!

To all those who stayed with us through the walk, thank you so much. Your comments, thoughts, and prayers meant a great deal to us.

Bon Chemin and Buen Camino!

 

Madrid; Living La Vida Tourist

2018 Camino de France

If you’re going to be a tourist, Madrid is a beautiful city to visit. With the Prado and Reina Sophia museums as the flagships of an endless stream of amazing cultural treats, a nightlife that stretches on to the mid- morning hours of the day, with castles and palaces and libraries and monuments … it is worth the visit!

We stayed about 50 meters off the heart of the city, the Sol plaza.  From this vantage, we can confirm that: 1) Tourists love Madrid, with tens of thousands wandering about, and 2) Madrid never sleeps … really, they never sleep!

One of the major radio stations sponsored an all- weekend series of concerts on the Sol plaza, which added to the festivities, fun and crowds.

Amongst the crowd were ‘informal’ vendors, typically immigrants who would spread out their wares on a blanket to sell them. Now, because they had no vendors license, the police would show up with some frequency to stop and/or arrest them. Now, these vendors are pretty savvy. In the photo, below, you will note that the blanket has strings attached to all four corners. The vendors always are holding onto the four strings. At the slightest sign of police, they pull upward, lifting the whole blanket (and wares) in order to make a hasty retreat. As soon as the cops are gone, the blanket is spread back out again.

The next photo shows several of these vendors ‘under way’, after the police showed up. How many can you spot in the photo?

Okay, on the continuing quest for Diane’s heritage, we found in France that they associate PINSON with a bird. Well, here in Spain, her heritage is more noble. It seems that the Captains of the Niña and the Pinta (Columbus captained the Santa Maria), were the Pinson brothers (okay, Pinzon). Here’s Diane pointing out her heritage at the Columbus monument in Madrid. 

(You’ll need to expand the photo to see the names. )

And on a final note from Europe, under the category of “I don’t think it means what they think it means”, or “somethings don’t translate”, here’s today’s entry: 

It’s a toilet paper brand with a rather peculiar name!

That’s all for now. See you stateside!

Preliminaries: Why Wirewalker?

2014 Camino de Santiago

Before Diane and I married, we committed to each other to live a life of adventure.  Our theme song at that time was Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run”.  More specifically, there is a line or two that goes: “will you walk with me out on the wire? Baby, we were born to run.” Diane actually had those lines engraved on Bill’s wedding ring.  Bill can no longer read them (even with reading glasses).

When we purchased our 43′ catamaran to sail across the horizon, we named her “Wirewalker”, as we viewed the ship as our vehicle to the next adventure.

Today, we depart for France/Spain and continue the wirewalking adventure in “Camino de Wirewalker”.

Preliminaries: What is the “Camino”?

2014 Camino de Santiago

In the modern mindset, the Camino is a long walk with many purposes. Some walk for religious reasons, some for health, some for entertainment. For Diane and I, it’s probably a mix of all three.

It didn’t start out that way.  To give credit where credit is due, I’ve used the description of the Pilgrimage, whole cloth, from: http://www.americanpilgrims.com/camino/history.html . I provide this only as background to the readers of this site and would commend people to the website above for a more complete description:

THE CAMINO IN HISTORY: El Camino de Santiago, in English “The Way of Saint James,” is the pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, where legend has it that the remains of Jesus’s apostle Saint James the Elder lie. The Camino has existed as a Christian pilgrimage for well over 1,000 years, and there is evidence of a pre-Christian route as well. Throughout the medieval period it was one of the three most important Christian pilgrimages undertaken. Indeed, it was only these pilgrimages—to Jerusalem, to Rome, and to Santiago de Compostela—which could result in a plenary indulgence, which frees a person from the penance due for sins.

Christian legend has it that when the Apostles divided the known world into missionary zones, the Iberian peninsula fell to James. Seventh and eighth century documents suggest that he spent a number of years preaching there before returning to Jerusalem, where in the year 44 AD he was beheaded by Herod Agrippa I. After his martyrdom, popular belief relates that his followers carried his body to the coast and put it into a stone boat, which was guided by angels and carried by the wind beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the Strait of Gibraltar) to land near Finisterre, at Padrón, in northern Spain. The local Queen, Lupa, provided the team of oxen used to draw the body from Padrón to the site of a marble tomb which she had also provided. Saint James was believed to have been buried there with two of his disciples. And there the body lay, forgotten until the 9th century.

Early in that century, Pelagius, a hermit living in that part of Galicia, had a vision in which he saw a star or a field of stars that led him to what proved to be an ancient tomb containing three bodies. He immediately reported this to the local bishop, Theodomir, who declared the remains to be those of Santiago and two of his followers and who in turn reported the find to the King of Asturias, Alphonso II, who forthwith declared Santiago to be the patron saint of Spain, or of what would eventually be Spain. That would come later. A small village named Campus de Ia Stella (Field of Stars) and a monastery were established on the site. (Or possibly the Roman word for cemetery, “componere”: to bury, is the source.) In any event, news of the discovery spread like wildfire and a trickle of pilgrims began to arrive. Miracles came to be attributed to the site, and the miracles encouraged pilgrimage and pilgrimage elicited more miracles. This was all greatly encouraged by the powerful Archbishop Gelmirez of Galicia and the cathedral authorities, who were anxious to promote Santiago as a pilgrimage destination, as well as by the monks of the Abbey of Cluny in France who were anxious to support the Spanish Church in its struggle against the Moors on the Peninsula.